


Waiting

by KLegnard



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Steadfast Tin Soldier - Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Guardian Jamie, M/M, Shut up I can like Hans Christen Anderson if I like, The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2017-12-20 20:46:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KLegnard/pseuds/KLegnard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie remembered the dreams he had as a kid. At least, his parents said they were dreams. Eight years after Jack left, he receives a message from Sandy asking for help. If Jamie wants to save Jack, he needs to do something no one should ever be asked to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jamie remembered the dreams he had as a kid. At least, his parents said they were dreams. In these dreams, Jamie would be visited by a figure in a blue sweatshirt. This figured was named Jack. More specifically, it was Jack Frost, the silver-haired spirit; a guardian of children everywhere.

Jamie remembered dreaming of a battle. It wasn't a battle that he was a major part in, but he was there. He was there when the guardians needed him, the last child who believed. Even now, years later, Jamie still remembers it all. Pitch Black, the Nightmares, everything. But most of all, he remembers Jack.

Jack had shown him magic, kept his beliefs alive. Jack was there through fun times, such as sledding down the freeway, and the hard times, like when Jamie needed a little reassuring, a reminder that great things do happen in a world of nightmares. Even more importantly, he remembers Jack, ancient, immortal, magical Jack, holding him close to shelter him from the cold, jumping towards the medicine cabinet at each sneeze. If only Jack could be there to watch over him now.

The pair only had a few solitary moments after the Pitch ordeal, and Jack was soon called away. Maybe it was selfish of Jamie to think that they could remain together, but he wanted it. He wanted it so bad. But alas, there were other kids who needed Jack more. They needed his free-spirited, easy-going attitude, and they needed relief from the fear caused by the Boogeyman.

Jamie would remind himself of this every night as he sat, waiting for the night Jack would return. Days turned to months, which turned to years, and still there was no sign of him.

That was years ago. Jamie had long since given up on seeing Jack again, and started to believe what the adults had told him. It was all just a dream. Besides, as an eighteen-year-old, it was frowned upon to have imaginary friends.

.o0o.

"Jamie! You're going to miss the bus! Again!"

"Coming mom!" Jamie replied, grabbing his backpack from the floor on his mad dash out the door. Tripping over his untied shoelaces, Jamie sprinted towards the end of the driveway. The sound of the bus engines encouraged him to run faster. Jamie barely made it to the corner of the street when the bus arrived.

"Sleep in late again?" The bus driver, Mr. Roberts asked as Jamie jumped onto the bus, panting. When Jamie nodded, Mr. Roberts continued, "You really need to get to bed earlier. I hate to say it, but don't stay up so late studying."

Studying. Jamie almost laughed at that. He was up late, but it had nothing to do with complex algorithms or shifting verb tenses. In reality, he was sitting up all night, like he's done for the past eight years, waiting for his "imaginary friend." He would never admit it, though. People would laugh, and he gets enough crap about other things already.

In the eight years since Jack had left, Jamie had taken up writing. He kept a journal about the events that occurred that winter, and after showing it to one of his friends, he became the laughing stock of the whole school. Add that to his photography classes and being the president of the school's increasingly small journalism club, he was easily labeled as the nerdy kid who had no social life.

Not, that Jamie minded, though. It gave him more time to write, and more time to convince himself that Jack, and the rest of the guard, was real. His journal was full of every little detail, every memory of his childhood. Recently, more and more of his entries were devoted to Jack, the way his eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement, the way his hands were warm, even though they appeared to be covered in ice, and how, no matter what, he was always there. At least, he used to be. Jamie just hoped that Jack was okay.

.o0o.

The snow was cold, even against Jack's skin. The thick sleeves of his hoodie weren't enough to keep the biting pain out. Even in the extreme cold, he was sweating though. He was tired, far to tired to go on. After loosing Bunnymund, the fight was lost. It was too late, and it was all his fault. If he had just stuck to the plan, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

"Giving up already? I thought you would be a bit more of a challenge, considering you took out my father." It took all of Jack's strength to drag himself to his feet. 'I will do this,' he thought, 'if not for Bunny, then for Jamie, wherever he his.'

"Oh, good! Finally some action!" His rival sneered, baring her teeth. This new force was Pitch's...daughter. She was stunning, and used it to her advantage. She could toy with you, get you to reveal or do anything. She went by Noir. Noir Black. When the Guard had first arrived at her dwelling, Jack had jested about how redundant and stupid that sounded. That seemed to piss her off.

Bunnymund had been the first to attack, before she could swipe an angry fist at him. Little did Jack and the others know that she had nearby security. A swarm of minuscule wasps flew in, and promptly started in on Bunnymund. There was nothing the rest could do, as when they thought they had cleared away some of the insects, more came back. It was then when Jack got stung.

The wasps must have had some sort of poison in their stingers, as he soon felt his system collapsing. Falling to his knees, he heard the final, gasping breath of E. Aster Bunnymund. It was all he could take, but the fall of an old friend seemed to put the rest of the gang out of it. Tooth was soon overtaken, Sandy disappeared, and their jolly Russian leader was taken somewhere to be interrogated. That left Jack.

All Jack wanted to do was defeat this new found enemy so he could get back to Jamie. The guardians had spent years tracking Noir down, and he was anxious to see Jamie again. Jack just hoped that Jamie still remembered him, or even still wanted to see him.

His worrying about Jamie had distracted him, and slowed his attacks. He needed to get his head in the game and focus on defeating Noir, otherwise he would be dead, and never get to see Jamie again. He needed to win this fight, needed to be victorious.

Jack lunged at Noir with a new speed, a higher energy. He raised his staff and his blow landed. He had knocked her down, and she was slowly backing into a corner. Jack had never heard about wild animals being most dangerous when cornered, but it seemed that humans were the same way. Noir swatted a hand at his ankles, catching him by the leg and tripping him. Jack fell to the ground with a large crash, and his world went black.

.o0o.

The bell signaling the end of class finally rang. Jamie's history class was normally boring, but today it was worse. Illness. Jamie felt lightheaded, and a bit out of it. Nauseous, he made his way to where the buses were waiting at the front entrance to the school.

The last time he had gotten sick had ended up with him missing a full week of school, lying in bed with his mom practically spoon-feeding him soup. This time, Jamie would just save himself the embarrassment and not tell his mother. It was probably just a slight cold, anyway.

Cold. That got him thinking about Jack, his face, his smile, how he seemed to jump with joy at any mention of the word snow. He thought back to that day years ago, when he hadn't known Jack, but even so, Jack was watching over him, creating crazy sledding tracks, and knocking out one of his teeth. Jamie imagined that if that had never happened, he wouldn't have met the love of his life. That would have killed him. He would have grown up loosing faith in miracles, and become just another mindless, non-imaginative students at his high school.

Jamie shuddered at the thought of that, though it may have been from the cold. He imagined Jack there, with him, even though he knew he was probably miles away. Jamie missed him, more than anything.


	2. Six Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sandy's POV

Sandy ran. Not from cowardice, or fear, but for necessity. He knew that he would be the only one able to escape and to reach Jamie. Jamie needed to know, needed to help. After all, he was the one who saved the day last time they needed help, not to mention the fact that Jamie and Jack were together. They thought no one knew, but it was sort or obvious. Sandy knew what needed to be done, and he set out to do it.

He ran away from the cold, from the dark, and towards the town where Jamie lived.

Hopefully, he would be able to find the right house eventually. After looking in window after window, he came to the final house on the street.

'Please, be here,' he silently begged, taking a deep breath and peering inside.

Yes! It was his room. The walls were no longer covered in shelves of toys, but books, and the floor was cleaner, but it was easily recognized from the colorful crayon drawing still hanging on the wall, from the day Jamie lost his tooth.

Carefully, and as quietly as he could, Sandy pushed open the window and climbed into the room. Sandy smiled, noticing that more drawings littered the walls, these done in charcoals, and more skillfully crafted. He spied one of himself, and one of all of the guardians, but pictures of Jack, or of Jack and Jamie together were far more common. 'This kid sure has talent,' he thought.

Surveying his surroundings, he also noticed a tin soldier standing on Jamie's desk. Sandy smiled a small smile, remembering why he had to come here.

Just then, he heard a door open downstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching the bedroom door. Sandy dashed towards the window, but was too late, the door was already open.

"Sandy?" Oh, it was Jamie. He was safe. Sandy nodded, stepping back to the middle of the room.

"Where's Jack? Is he okay?" Jamie looked distraught.

"Sandy shook his head, knowing that Jamie would be greatly upset by the news, but he couldn't lie to him.

Jamie sat down on his bed, lowering his head. Sandy could hear the sounds of crying, and he moved to put his arm around Jamie.

"W-what happened?" Jamie looked up, eyes red.

Sandy took a minute to figure out the best way to explain. He grabbed the sketchbook off of the desk and started to draw. After showing him the picture, he flipped to another page.

'He needs your help,' he wrote, holding it up for the boy to see.

Jamie nodded and choked out the word 'anything.'

Sandy once more needed to think about a good way to get his point across, and held up the tin soldier. He handed it to Jamie who looked puzzled.

"W-What?" The guardian had an idea. he raced to a bookshelf and pulled out a set of old fairy tales. Flipping to a page about Jack, he passed it to Jamie.

"I still don't get it." He stared at the page. Sighing, Sandy took the book and flipped to another page: Hans Christian Anderson's A Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Jamie shook his head, still confused, and Sandy looked furious. He snatched up a notebook and scribbled six words:

You Need To Become A Guardian.


	3. step One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is sooo short, but I felt like it should stop here.

"M-me? Become a guardian? Nope. No way. I can't. Don't you have to die to become a guardian? I'm no-" Sandy cut him off by tossing the book to him. Falling to the floor with a loud thump, it fell open to the story about the Tin Soldier.

As the story goes, a boy receives a set of toy soldiers and arrays them on a table. One soldier stands on a single leg. Nearby, he spies a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She too is standing on one leg and the soldier falls in love. That night, a goblin among the toys warns the soldier to take his eyes off the ballerina, but is ignored. The next day, the soldier 'falls' from a windowsill and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat washes into a drain, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When the fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table in front of the ballerina. Inexplicably, the boy throws the tin soldier into the fire. Wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed at once but her spangle remains. The tin soldier melts alongside her into the shape of a heart.

Jamie was unsure how this story had anything to do with becoming a guardian, but he knew he had to save Jack; he always said he would give up his life for him. But now? He was scared. He didn't know what do do. He was far too young to die, and leaving his family behind? How would they feel? He stared hard at the book, then at the soldier that now lay on the floor, and made a decision. Glancing up at Sandy, he set his jaw.

"Okay. What do I need to do?"

.o0o.

"What?" Jamie's jaw dropped, "You want to rip off my leg?"

Sandy shook his head.

"Oh, thank god! You just want me to die." Sandy hadn't known Jamie had grown up to be so sarcastic.

Jamie and Sandy were still sitting in Jamie's bedroom, where the Golden Sandman spent quite some time trying to tell Jamie what needed to be done in order to save jack.

So, in order to save Jack, he had to save someone, die, become a guardian, infiltrate Noir's castle, and free Jack. Sounds simple, no?

"I guess we should start with me saving someone. Who?" To that, Sandy shrugged.

"Great. Just great." At that moment, screams could be heard from Jamie's sister's room.

"Sophie!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it took so long to update. Please don't hate me? Anyways, here's half of the next chapter. I'll post the second half separately because I felt like it would be best to leave off here. Thanks, and enjoy!  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the firetrucks arrived, it was too late for them to do anything. 

The glowing embers had encased the house, sparks bursting off in every direction, only to sizzle out and blacken upon hitting the frozen grass. Already wooden support beams tumbled down, straight into the eager flames. Dark grey clouds of smoke contrasted heavily with clear blue skies. 

Upon closer inspection, it would be revealed that the fire had been started in one of the bedrooms; a small article of doll clothing had found it's way into the heating system and caught on fire. 

When the ambulance arrived, it was too late for them to do anything. 

Two figures were laid out on the lawn, the larger one heavily bandaged, nearly covering the entirety of the lower half of his body. The smaller one had substantially less injuries: a few scorch marks and nasty blisters here and there. The larger one, though, in addition to the bandages, was spotted in red welts and blisters. Irritated skin cracked and peeled, revealing fresh pink flesh beneath. There was a long bruise running up and down his side as well, where the medical team could only suspect something fell, like a support beam or a light fixture; something heavy. 

The paramedics were able to easily identify the smaller figure as Sophie Beckett, but only assumed the larger one was her brother, for his face was too distorted for them to tell. They would seek further information when he woke up. If he woke up.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
When Jamie woke in the hospital he knew something was wrong. Something felt...different. Aside from the sting of the I.V. drip in his arm. Something was missing.  
Before Jamie could figure out what it was, he heard the clack, clack, clack of shoes on the tile flooring. 

"Hello? Jamie, is it? You awake?" A short, round faced, and bright eyes nurse peeked her head in the doorway. There was a clipboard clutched tightly in her hand.

"Mm-hmm," Jamie mumbled, "Barely." 

"Oh, great!" She exclaimed, almost dropping the board; a few papers fell lose anyways. "You're sister's been asking to see you. Can I send her in?" 

Jamie nodded, but winced at the sharp pain that ran up his spine. 

"Or maybe I should send her in later?" The nursemaid's face contorted into a look of worry. "Are you sure you're okay?" 

Knowing not to nod this time, he choked out a soft "yeah," and she smiled. 

"Alrighty then! I'll go get her!" The nurse left, and returned a minute later with Sophie.

"Jamie!" She called, springing onto the bed. 

"Sophie!" He replied, ruffling her hair. "What happened to you?" He half-joked, taking note of the blisters running down the side of her face. Her skin was splitting in places, and it looked red and raw. Jamie assumed he couldn't have looked much different. 

He moved to sit up, and get to his knees, but something was off. 

"Sophie, could you?" He gestured to the blanket where she was sitting, and she got off and pulled it aside. What Jamie saw shocked and scared him. Or rather, what he didn't see.


End file.
